The Most Successful Tennis Stars in Europe of 21st Century
For over 50 years the era of tennis has indeed seen tremendous competition and expansion on a world-class level from a plethora of dominant regions across the globe. As such, globalization has indeed paved its way for a myriad of countries to develop their tennis champions as well as legacies.
Furthermore, these developments occur at an astronomically high rate as the 21st century has incorporated technologies in both viewings as well communication. The Roger Deferrer era has gone a long way in the expansion of the renowned sport to the world. In the article below as per the Historical Dictionary of Tennis by John Grasso, we will carefully examine a coterie of most successful European tennis stars as well as their respective countries.
Carol Wozniacki
In 2010, Carol became the first Scandinavian WTA from Denmark to rank in the top position. As expected, she received a ton of slack and criticism for attaining this honor without having a Grand Slam title under her belt. Her best finish took place at the 2009 US Open.
Currently, she ranks at the top 10 but is still trying to polish up her skills. Additionally, she has displayed the skills to be in competition for Grand Slam matches, alongside a copiousness of years to peak and go against the great Serena Williams.
Agnieszka Radwanska
She is currently one of the most accomplished tennis players from Poland. About half a decade ago in 2012, she became one of the Wimbledon finalists and came in third in the WTA rankings. At the moment she is ranked at the fifth position.
Overall, Agnieszka exudes an intriguing as well as personality. At the tender age of 24, she is a great gamble in walking away with a Grand Slam title up her sleeve, thereby drawing more attention to Poland. In addition to that, her ATP parallel is Jerzy Janowicz who is only 23 years old and is equally talented to compete in Slam matches.
He has great talent and an enormous serve with his forehead and as such has gained popularity with his semifinal appearance at Wimbledon. Furthermore, there is a high chance he is the youngest ATP player to win a major. If either of these two tennis pros walks away as an elated winner of the Slam title, then Poland will be successful in cracking the top 25 legacies for sports regions.
Richard Krajicek
Over two decades ago in the year 1996, Richard became the first and only Dutch player to defeat the renowned Pete Sampras at Wimbledon during the legend’s seven titles within a span of 8 years. Additionally, he became victorious in the quarterfinal upset in straight sets and thus, secured his chance by winning the title. He earned a total of 17 titles in his career and appeared in three other Slam match semifinals, with an enormous serve and unique volley skills under his belt.
Thomas Muster
For a coterie of years in the year 1995, Thomas dominated clay-court tennis as if he was related to Rafael Nadal. The skilled lefty took over his red-clay match and scored a whopping 40 titles in a total of 45 finals on his most preferred surface. In addition to that, he came out at the top in the 1995 French Open Championship.
Miloslav Mecir
In the late 1980’s Mecir from Slovakia, was a representative of the former Czechoslovakia, alongside a defensive player that successfully made a grind away with matches as well as opponents. Additionally, Miloslav made an appearance in two Grand Slam finals, but unfortunately, Ivan Lendl beat him in both games. Nevertheless, Mecir made a comeback in 1986 at the final of the US Open, which also signified the last time that tennis players would use wooden rackets. In 1988 he achieved the best ranking at the fourth position in his career and became a gold medal champion in the 1988 Olympics.
Adriano Panatta
He featured as a tennis star from Italy in the 1970’s. He was a clay-court professional who was famous for beating Bjorn Borg two times at Ronald Garros. Nevertheless, they were Borg’s only defeats amongst his 6 French Open titles.
Panatta optimized his opportunity by emerging the winner in the 1976 French Open, despite encountering the match point in the initial round. Additionally, he got Italy to the Davis Cup Championship and three consecutive Davis Cup finals during this duration.
Vladimir Voltchkov
The development of tennis history is slowly expanding since the arrival of post-Soviet-era Belarus. About two decades ago in the year 2000, Vladimir attained position 25 in the Wimbledon semifinals. As you know, Max Mirnyi had a tad more consistency in his career in the early 2000’s, ranking at position 18 in the single matches and position 1 in the dual matches in the year 2003.
With that in mind, he alongside Vladimir became champions when they contributed to the defeat of Russia as well as Argentina back in 2004 at the Davis Cup match to the semifinals ^.
